Fresh Talks 12-8-16

The Feeding America network reaches nearly every community in America, with over 200 food banks serving as warehouses for over 60,000 food pantries and meal programs across the country. You can help by contributing to our Wild Seed Marketing fundraiser now through December 22nd. Every $1 donated to our fundraiser helps provide 11 meals through the Feeding America nationwide network of food banks. The Wild Seed Marketing Team has set a goal to raise $100 and provide 1,100 meals to our community this Holiday season.

REI diverted far away from the norm of retail strategy by opting to close it’s doors on the infamous Black Friday. Of course, this movement was trailed with a huge amount of publicity that was actually almost all positive from the brand’s loyal customers! As well as REI’s #OptOutside Black Friday being formally accepted by its own customers, the state of California also caught onto this trend and offered free admission to many of its state parks on Black Friday. The goal? To eventually build a “Green Friday” movement. REI CEO Jerry Stritzke stated “As a nation, we’re still spending 90% of our lives indoors and it’s a trend we need to tackle”.

We certainly agree with you, Jerry! The produce industry should jump at this idea next year, and apply a #FreshFriday movement to their own farms and facilities. Next year, produce companies could implement a #FreshFriday movement by offering free tours of farms or packing facilities. Farms could even grow a small “pick your own” area on the farm and allow visitors to pick a few of their favorite produce for a reduced cost.

With Christmas and the Holidays right around the corner, it’s pretty likely that you already have your holiday digital marketing strategy ready to roll, but it’s never too late to make a few last minute adjustments to help improve your plan! You definitely want to make sure you have completed a website speed check, and make sure your website will load completely in less than 3 seconds. Radware reported over half of your visitors will leave your site if it takes longer than 3 seconds to load. Another key to your marketing plan should be to highlight customer satisfaction and feature product reviews on all social media outlets. Lastly, learn from the past! Keep a document of the ideas that worked or didn’t work from last year, and make notes as you go. If you haven’t started a document like this already, it’s definitely not too late! Start it today and refer to it as monthly guide including competition, statistics, Google Analytics, promotional ideas, and any campaigns you have tried or would like to implement in the future.